ginger bee farm

Kune Kunes: the low-input dynamo

Kune Kune feeding can seem like cheating – it will honestly feel to you like they put on more weight than you are feeding them, like they’ve tapped into a way to gain on oxygen and water alone.

 

The reality isn’t quite that miraculous, but this is a breed that needs very little to produce a lot. Feed them right and feed them well, and you’ll be amazed at how efficient they are.

The Ginger Bee family                                    

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The truth about feeding Kune Kunes

Kune Kune pigs have quickly gained popularity as a homestead pig, which is wonderful, but the downside to their rapid popularity is that many people are breeding and selling them without any foundational pig knowledge. 

 

Those buyers then sell their own pigs to new buyers, and those new buyers sell their own. As a result, we have thousands of Kune Kunes spread across the US with very few farmers who have had them more than a few years.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the feeding advice we’ve seen – usually some version of “they can eat grass and they don’t need anything else.” That is not true, at least in New England, and we want to start you off with the correct knowledge you need to have healthy pigs not just for a couple of years, but for many vibrant generations on your homestead.

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The three pillars of Feeding Kune kunes

Forage

Kune Kunes should be fed a high-quality forage, whether they access it themselves or are given broad-leaf hay. Grass hay or grass is of only limited value; clover or alfalfa is excellent for them. Forage also includes non-meat kitchen scraps, eggs, and other healthy goodies.

Grain concentrate

There's a persistent myth that Kune Kunes don't need grain. This is untrue. They may survive without grain, but they will not grow well or produce the meat quality you want. A good, tested feed pellet is essential.

Minerals

Your high-quality pellet will have minerals added, but those minerals are dosed for constant free feeding, not for the small amounts you'll be feeding your Kune Kunes. Most Kunes will become somewhat deficient over time if they are not given additional minerals.

Put together a meal for your Kune kunes

Cornbread and beans

The bulk of the nutrition that your Kune Kune should receive will come from a combination of grains and legumes. Corn and soybeans are the most common combination.

salad

The next important category your Kune Kune needs is broad-leaf, digestible vegetable matter. Clover and alfalfa are wonderful, as are garden vegetable tops and kitchen trimmings.

milk and butter

Pigs do very well on dairy and healthy fat sources, just like we do. One of the most practical ways to feed Kune Kunes is using the "waste" of homestead dairy, like whey and buttermilk.

fruit and sweets

The smallest proportion of the typical Kune Kune meal will be fruits and sweets. They should not eat candy or processed chocolate, but they adore the scrapings of jam jars, honey strainings, and other healthy homestead products that would otherwise go to waste.

Myths and facts about feeding Kune kunes

Can't Kune Kunes graze?

It's very, very important to understand how pig digestions work, if you're going to feed a pig properly. Pigs have digestive systems that are extremely similar to human digestive systems. So an easy rule of thumb when you're wondering whether a Kune Kune can eat something is whether you could eat that thing.

So the answer to the grazing question is yes, Kune Kunes can graze. They love grazing, in fact. But they are only going to take in as much nutrition from that grazing as you would if you were grazing the same patch.

Grass is extremely low in nutrients and difficult to digest. Kune Kunes cannot eat grass and thrive, any more than you can. They don't have a ruminant system and cannot get adequate nutrition from grass or grassy plants.

Broad-leaf plants that are easy to digest and nutrient-dense are wonderful for Kune Kunes, and if you carefully design and plant a forage system for them (with a good forage nutritionist) you can provide the majority of their nutrition as they forage. 

But the bottom line is that the idea that Kune Kunes are "a grazing pig," if grass is what you're picturing, is a myth, and very dangerous to your pigs. 

But I read that this breeder or that breed society said they could just graze!

Yes, we're sure you did! We've read those same statements. Here's the reason we think that this myth persists:

 

- The breeder is in the US, but is a new breeder. Because so few Kune Kunes breeders have long-term pig experience, there's a sort of "game of telephone" that goes around the homesteading community.

 

- The breeder isn't seriously trying to produce marketable and predictable meat/fat from their pigs. Kune Kunes can survive on nothing but sparse forage in many areas of the US, but they will not produce optimal carcass on it. Any homesteader knows what your chickens look like if you free-range them without giving them any grain; they'll be alive, but they will be scrawny and give you very few eggs. Many of us start out determined to solely free-range our poultry, but we quickly realize that the reality is different. Kune Kunes are the same way - if you want them to give you the best outputs, you need to give them the best inputs.

 

- The breeder is in the UK or in New Zealand, where varied forage is available year-round and the expectations for space-per-pig is extremely high.

When the Pilgrims came to the American coast in the 1600s, over half starved to death even though they were experienced, knowledgeable farmers in England. What works there doesn't work here; our climate is completely different and our soil is much less fertile. It's possible that a Kune Kune producer in USDA zone 10 with an acre per pig could completely eliminate grain and still have good production, but the rest of us need to make regular trips to the feed store. 

Do Kune Kunes need chemical supplements?

Yes. (We prefer to call them "minerals," but yes.)

 

We know this makes homesteaders get itchy, and we get it, but your Kune Kune doesn't care how you feel about "chemicals" - they just know they need them to thrive.

 

All Kune Kunes need a mineral supplement, which includes synthetic, mined, and/or chemical ingredients, to grow and reproduce properly. This is very much like taking a daily vitamin pill would be for you; it fills in the holes that the diet may have left. 

 

If you feel extremely strongly that you don't want to feed any non-whole-food ingredients to your Kune Kune, you can work with a forage nutritionist to come up with a whole-food diet for your pigs, but this is unlikely to be financially possible for most homesteads. 

Can I use natural dewormers on Kune Kunes?

Kune Kunes need regular worming/deworming (depending on what terminology you prefer!) to thrive. Pigs don't just eat off the ground - they actually eat the ground. So they're constantly coming in contact with parasite eggs and single-celled organisms, and they need help getting rid of those invaders.

You can use any wormer that works. That's a key qualification. The wormers you heard about on YouTube or read about in a homesteader's forum are likely to be less effective the more comfortable you are with the way they sound. Pumpkin seed, herbs, and various water additives that sound like something you'd feed your kids just plain don't work. They've been studied exhaustively and they make virtually no difference to parasites. 

The ones with scary names like doramectin and fenbendazole, on a schedule worked out using research and hopefully in coordination with a good pig vet, are what keep your pigs healthy. 

Can I feed my Kune Kunes kitchen scraps?

Yes! In fact, healthy kitchen scraps are a super important part of using Kune Kunes to increase sustainability on the homestead and to reduce waste. 

Kune Kunes can have any scraps that you could digest yourself, except meat. Pigs should never be fed meat, because any parasites that might remain in the meat can very easily infect pigs. 

 

We keep two cute little scrape buckets in our household; every bit of leftover food from the family goes into one of those buckets. Anything with meat or meat juice on it goes to the chickens; everything else goes to the Kune Kunes. 

Can I feed more for faster growth?

Commercial lean pigs have been selectively bred for (literally) hundreds of years to be able to grow in proportion to what is fed to them. So the more you feed, the faster they put on meat - and if you feed free-choice, with high-protein feed available at all times, you maximize growth and meat rates.

 

Kune Kunes are a largely unimproved breed, meaning they don't have the ability to lay down muscle that fast and they don't have the metabolisms to convert massive amounts of food into meat. What you'd do if you increased the feed beyond their normal need for growth is just encourage them to put down fat - but not where you want them to put fat.

 

Where you want Kune Kunes to get fat is above the kidneys and in other clean internal pockets (the wonderful leaf lard that we prize so highly), and in the belly and throughout the shoulders and hams.

 

Overfeeding encourages them to put fat right under their skin, so they will get massive faces (even to the point that they become fat-blind when their skin forces their eyes closed), fat rolls above their tails, rolls above their legs, and so on. They will get irritated skin and infections where the rolls rub together, and you won't end up with usable healthy fat when they go to be processed. 

 

It's better for your pigs, better for your table, and better for your bottom line to feed to healthy growth, and let the pig mature slowly and reach processing weight a few months later. 

Do Kune Kunes do better or make better meat on organic feed?

The best feed for your pigs is a tested, well-researched brand that is balanced and proven to nourish your pigs. 

 

Some people strongly prefer to use organic; others don't. You shouldn't feel pressured either way; feed what you feel comfortable with, as long as it's balanced and well made.

 

There are lots of conspiracy theories out there, like the idea that conventionally raised pigs have steroids in their food (they absolutely do not) or that commercial feeds contain hormones (nonsense), and so on. Thankfully, you can ignore all that; feed a healthy feed that you can afford and that grows your pigs well, and enjoy the fruits of your labors.